Marketplace demands for inkjet printers capable of producing images of photographic quality and archivability require the development of novel colorants (dyes) of increased brightness and light-fastness. Many available dyes exhibiting bright hues suffer from poor light-fastness. Conversely, many available colorants that fade little with time are dull in color. It is the purpose of this disclosure to describe a novel series of 8-heterocyclic azo-5-aminoquinoline metal complex dyes, which demonstrate improved light-fastness while exhibiting bright, vivid colors.
Dyes disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,001,161 to Weber et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,997,622 to Evans et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,001,203 to Back et al. are similar in structure to the dyes of this invention. It has been found, however, that the incorporation of an amine group in place of hydroxyl on the quinoline moiety affords the opportunity for the facile addition of functionality offering improvements to properties such as solubility, solution stability, water-fastness, light-fastness, and ozone-fastness. Secondly, it is not chemically obvious or intuitive that dyes with amine groups will display similar colors or properties to related hydroxyl derivatives.